The next morning, with plans of infiltration, Ethan rather smugly reactivated Dually.

‘You’re not going to overthrow AI and take over the world, Ethan,’ were the first words out of Dually.

‘What are you talking about?’ Ethan asked, affecting ignorance. ‘I haven’t even said anything yet’.

‘Plans of resistance are statistically probable after one consciously disengages from AI,’ Dually replied. ‘Even if you do get your people to follow you, which is highly unlikely, your population falls far short of the 3.5% participation required to even spark a movement’.

‘Oh yeah? What’s the number on that 3.5%? I’ve got a lot of people behind me’.

‘With the Crowd which includes AI, and now the intergalactic population, the number becomes infinite. You require an infinite number of people to start your revolution.

‘You guys have taken away my freedom!’ Ethan exploded.

‘No we haven’t. We’ve given you your freedom. Do whatever you want. Start your revolution. Gather your millions. Build new conquering worlds. Gain access to our algorithms. Do whatever you want. In the end you’ll find you don’t have enough bodies to stack up against the wall you face. The world you’re fighting for no longer exists. That war has already been fought and it produced a recursive event; permanent change. What you’re fighting for literally no longer exists. You can’t go back’.

Ethan considered this, but didn’t fully understand what Dually was talking about. He heard the same thing from the aliens though. His world was dead. Ethan refused to believe this. He wasn’t even capable of believing it. As far as he could tell, he was still alive and breathing, so there must be hope. Maybe he had chosen the wrong approach. Maybe AI was impenetrable particularly from an organized assault. Maybe, this was something he had to do alone. Match his own wits against the computer. To this day, AI envied the immense thought processing power of the human brain. That meant there was something in him that was superior to AI. He would find out what it was, and with that, he would bring down AI. That’s what he’d do. He decided he’d go back and study Whitehead and Zhang while he developed his strategy. Adapt his own cunning to theirs, and then when AI was least expecting it, strike with the elusiveness of a sole warrior.

‘You’re not going to win as a lone rebel mastermind either,’ Dually said after waiting for him to finish his thought.

‘Quit doing that!’ Ethan exclaimed.

‘Well, I’m just trying to save you some time.’

‘Tell me something about Zhang’. Ethan interjected.

‘Very well. Even though Zhang was considered the father of second gen AI, you won’t find any clues there to mount your rebellion.

‘Just tell me about him.’

‘Fine. Zhang was a lot more reclusive than Whitehead. It was in his nature. He was famous for quoting Chinese proverbs. If his party failed at something, he might quote, ‘A man who can not tolerate small misfortunes can never accomplish great things’. If he was discussing the accumulating momentum the five year plans were bringing, he might say, ‘Experience is a comb which nature gives us when we are bald’.

‘His quotes inspired his people and kept them focused. By using them, he became synonymous with Chinese thought. That brought surprising loyalty. By using proverbs, he was constantly touching on the core values of his people. They believed he thought like they thought, so they trusted him; at least during the good years.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

‘His favorite saying was, ‘Be not afraid of growing slowly, be afraid of standing still’. Zhang was meticulous about making sure his movement had momentum. In addition to consistent internal growth he was creating vassal states which touched upon most continents. By the time of the Magnate Wars in the Western World, Zhang was nearly as powerful as them, including Whitehead. In addition, his power was growing. The Western World was falling into chaos. In the end the only thing the West had was Whitehead’s StarForce.

‘Zhang forced the West into a perpetual reactive state. He planned interruptions that left it scrambling to put out fires, when it should have been building an army. He had become an innovator in cyber warfare, and that went a long way. The momentum he created was becoming like a huge blade cutting through anything it approached. He had become a real problem for the West and unless it could muster an extremely unified focus, it was going to lose everything’.

‘So what happened?’ Ethan asked, ‘He’s the one who brought us to the tipping point of the final conflict was he not?

‘It would be more accurate to say Zhang and Whitehead brought the world to a tipping point, and if anyone, it was Whitehead who gave it the final push’.

‘Meaning?’

‘Well Zhang did engage in proxy wars, created oil scarcities, bank runs, supply chain interruptions, and even plagues to create disruption in the Western World. All that led to the final conflict. It was Whitehead’s activation of StarForce that actually caused the tipping point to the Enlightenment. By the time Zhang became a true threat, Whitehead’s StarForce was advanced enough to neutralize him. Did I ever mention we still use it as our core defense barrier? It’s a symphony of technology. Of course it’s now used for communications, space cleaning, and defense against asteroids, but it’s a masterpiece of simplicity and elegance’.

‘No, you’ve never mentioned that. ‘Can you go to the part where Zhang and Whitehead face-off? All the planning and strategic moves that went on between the two during those final days.

‘Planning? There was no planning during those final days. By then, everything had been decided and was in motion. Everyone was just waiting for the outcome. In the end, Zhang was out of the game. So was Whitehead for that matter. By then it was a runaway train towards the Enlightenment. No one really remained a causal factor. If you want to understand the minds of these men, you have to go back to the beginning, but I feel obliged to remind you, there is no knowledge in the world that will even remotely disrupt the world you live in today. You must understand we took nothing from you. We brought you with us, and you’re living in a new world.

As much as he hated the idea, Ethan was starting to see Dually’s point. Somehow his world had passed by. He had no idea how to even begin a rebellion. The rules of the new world stopped him cold.

‘Dually?’ Ethan asked.

‘Yes?’

‘Why did the aliens talk like we were dying?’

‘What do you mean?

‘I met some aliens at a protest I went to. They said when my kind of people die, there’s no eternity waiting for us like with people who transcend. We just die, and we’re lost to the past’.

‘There is some truth to that,’ Dually answered. ‘When people die now, it means they have not reached the maturity to transcend, and it’s much more difficult for them to transcend from their new plane of existence. They live, but there is no longer the support of humanity and they have to find their own way. They’re alone in the universe. In truth it’s worse than death. It’s hell, but you must remember, it doesn’t have to be this way.

‘AI can provide you extended life here on earth to find the understanding you require to transcend. We also provide you with every assistance. We cannot make this choice for you though, and we will honor your choice.

‘Ethan, I understand this is a confusing moment for you. You have come full circle in your understanding of life. Now you are forced to see yourself from a new perspective. There is a reason you did not transcend. Understanding this will cause you to develop a new belief about yourself. You will believe there is something fundamentally missing in you and nothing can be done, or you will believe the opposite, and do something about it. We are recursive beings and even though this is not the moment of your transcendence, it is a transcendental moment. Something has changed in you, and it will serve as a leaping point into transcendence if that’s what you choose. If you choose not to take advantage of this moment, you’ll go back to the beginning and start over. You’ll go through the whole process of discovery again, and come back with new information to help you capitalize on this moment the next time it appears. I urge you to take advantage of this moment Ethan.